Arkansas Children’s Week Day Two- Tuesday 2013

Today all of the children were here except one and it was fairly calm.  Maybe it was because many of the kids were gathered around the table for an hour or more building and creating with junk.   Not only does using the recycling bin save our planet but it also encourages us to use our brains and think outside the box to create something totally different from ” trash” like this camera that Joslyn made !

Doing this type of art is good for the kids in so many ways.  There are social skills being strengthened as they learn how to share materials at the table. There is fine motor as they cut and pull.  There are some SUPER COGNITIVE EXERCISES going on  as they try to figure out what they want to do and what it will take to put it together.

So when you come in this afternoon you might find a lot of art from trash in your child’s cubby. ( Mostly girls chose this activity and not all of them. Remember kids go where they are interested and that is where they learn best. Not me making them come create! )  When you take it ( them.. some parents are REALLY LUCKY) some things you could say are :

It looks like you were very busy today.

It must have been hard work to figure out how to make this.

And then.. if they continue the conversation you can take it from there.  They will continue to learn if you ask more questions OR.. maybe even go home and add your own pieces of ” trash” with them !

Another fun activity we did today was musical painting.

Each child was given  a cup of paint and a paint brush and they started painting to the music, when the music stopped they picked up their paint and walked around the table. When the music started again they stopped wherever they were and painted.  COOPERATIVE PAINTING. At first it was a little confusing for them. They wanted to go back to their paper but one they caught on that they were ” helping ” each other they were ok with the game. It really was fun.

Not to neglect music but that is already such a part of our environment that we arent spending as much time focusing special projects on it.  We did however start our circus music this week for our end of the year program AND Mr Randy played a little game with some of the kids using an AP on his phone.  They would sing a song . He would record it and play it back in a monkey voice.  Funny stuff.

I have gotten stuck in this website and booted out twice so I am going to put all our pictures in a gallery instead of linking them one by one.  Enjoy !